Report details why Vikings picked J.J. McCarthy over Aaron Rodgers, McCarthy's Minnesota downfall

It's now no secret that future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers was seriously interested in joining the Minnesota Vikings in March 2025. The Vikings instead elected to go with 2024 first-round draft pick J.J. McCarthy as their QB1. 

That decision ultimately blew up in the face of Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell, and Minnesota agreed this past Monday to send McCarthy to the New York Giants for a 2027 fifth-round draft pick. Vikings reporter Alec Lewis of The Athletic revealed information about the club's 2025 decision and about all that went wrong during McCarthy's short-lived tenure with the franchise. 

Vikings feared J.J. McCarthy would request trade if they signed Aaron Rodgers

"The team mulled the idea for days after Rodgers pledged to play for a minuscule amount of money, and many endorsed the move," Lewis wrote about conversations that happened within the Vikings in early 2025. "But concerns with Rodgers’ potential fit and the possibility of McCarthy’s camp requesting a trade contributed to the Vikings’ dice roll that McCarthy could be a franchise quarterback for the long term. The Vikings moved forward into the spring and summer hoping that an intentional structure could accelerate McCarthy’s growth."

McCarthy spent his entire rookie season recovering from a full meniscus repair, so he was largely an unknown commodity at the time Rodgers became available for the Vikings. Meanwhile, O'Connell and Rodgers have known each other for over a decade and have a good relationship. Nevertheless, O'Connell and Co. ultimately handed the keys of the team's offense over to McCarthy at that time. 

As Lewis noted, "McCarthy’s inability to stay healthy or play with consistency" was his downfall with the Vikings. Injury issues limited McCarthy to just 10 regular-season starts during the 2025 campaign, and his performances over those outings resulted in the Vikings signing current starter Kyler Murray early into this past offseason. 

J.J. McCarthy's "youth and defiance" were "troubling for Vikings executives and coaches"

"McCarthy’s comments regarding his 'Nine' alter ego — a reference to his jersey number — earned several internal eye-rolls," Lewis shared. "He similarly baffled members of the organization when he told reporters that he bucked his coaches’ advice by dancing the 'Griddy' before he reached the end zone against the Cowboys in Week 15. These bouts of youth and defiance, evident both in front of the cameras and away from them inside the TCO Performance Center, were troubling for Vikings executives and coaches."

History shows all of that would have been forgivable had McCarthy outperformed Murray this summer. Instead, O'Connell named Murray the team's Week 1 starter before Minnesota's first game of the preseason in August, and O'Connell later relegated McCarthy to QB3 duties. 

First-year Giants head coach and franchise head of football operations John Harbaugh will now attempt to prove that the Vikings failed McCarthy. Questions about O'Connell's ability to develop a young signal-caller may grow louder if McCarthy looks like a revelation while with the Giants later this season.